Twenty serving and retired police officers will be able to give their evidence to the Bloody Sunday inquiry from behind screens shielding their identity, it was ruled today.
Mr Nicholas Hanna QC had earlier said they had serious concerns for their own safety. He also said at the inquiry before Lord Saville of Newdigate at Derry's Guildhall that up to three officers may also apply to give their evidence in London.
A number of British paratroopers, from the regiment accused of shooting dead 13 Catholic men and boys on January 30th, 1972, have already won the right to give their evidence to the inquiry in London.
Today Mr Hanna said police officers faced a potential terrorist threat if their faces became well known. "While there may be no specific threat against them at this time - and that is what the Special Branch assessment says - the fact of the matter is that may not be the case in the future".
The names of the police officers have already been disclosed and are not set to be protected by the inquiry.
If the public could see them as well as know their names "then effectively their identities are fully unprotected at the end of this tribunal", Mr Hanna said. "The clock cannot be turned back and the damage cannot be undone".
He said: "These individuals do live their daily lives in Northern Ireland. Some are retired and living in circumstances where they had hoped that they had put some distance between their lives and their police past".
Mr Christopher Clarke QC, for the inquiry, said 20 witnesses had applied for screening and a further four could not be contacted and may yet indicate that they wish to make an application. Five police witnesses did not wish to be screened, he said.
Mr Michael Mansfield QC, for relatives of some of the dead, said that in the last 30 years there had never been a terrorist attack against a police officer giving evidence.